


They Were Friends, Once

by finereluctance



Series: Long Time Coming [5]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Gen, when they were kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-11-13
Packaged: 2018-01-01 09:19:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1043121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finereluctance/pseuds/finereluctance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>pre-series, February 1983 – It was a snow day and school was canceled, so Nathan, Duke, and half the kids from school went sledding.  For two of them, that day would change everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They Were Friends, Once

***

Snow wasn’t an uncommon sight in Maine in February, but everyone from Haven remembered the week in 1983 where the town got upwards of five feet of snow over seven days. Schools were closed and most cars in town were still buried, so most people spent the week stuck close to home while the kids played in the open spaces around town. Every child in Haven would argue which ponds were the best for skating, but they all agreed that Stanton Hill was the best for sledding. Stanton Hill was the biggest hill Haven, leading from the main part of town up to the Stanton Estate, and it was a common sight to see upwards of two dozen kids sledding there on snowy winter days.

Nathan was seven that winter when he dragged his old sled up the hill to join the other kids. He’d wanted the Chrome Lightning for Christmas, but Santa hadn’t brought it and his dad said all the stores were sold out, so Nathan was still using the same old sled he’d had his entire life. Duke, one of the boys from school, was already at the top of the hill with his older brother, Wade, and their sled.

“Hi Duke,” Nathan said shyly. Duke wasn’t exactly his friend, but he wasn’t mean either, and since they’d gone to school together since kindergarten they usually played together if Nathan’s dad wasn’t around. Nathan’s dad had warned him not to spend time with ‘the Crocker boy’ because he was a bad kid like Duke’s dad was bad, but Nathan thought Duke was just fine so as long as his dad wasn’t there he played with Duke.

“Hi Nate,” Duke grinned back, all wide smiles and missing teeth. “Where were you? We’ve been here for hours already!”

“Dad dropped me off on his way to work,” Nathan shrugged and smiled back, his two front teeth missing as well. “So I can play until dark, but then he’s gonna come get me.”

“Awesome!” Duke grabbed him by the arm and tugged him to the front of the line of kids. “Come on, ride with me!”

Nathan abandoned his sled off to the side and trailed along behind Duke as he usually did without complaint. With matching grins Nathan got into the saucer sled and leaned to the side so Duke would have space to jump in once he gave them a push to start. They waited for Bill and Jeff to go first, then they were flying down the hill, Duke half on top of Nathan in the sled as he hollered and held on for dear life. Nathan was in a fit of giggles, fingers clutching the edges and ducked low so they wouldn’t tip over too soon. No sooner had they hit level ground then they flipped over in a tangle of limbs and a burst of snow from the drift they had crashed into, both boys giggling and pushing playfully at each other in an effort to scramble to their feet.

“Let’s do it again!” Nathan’s eyes were bright with excitement when he tugged Duke to his feet and picked up the sled. 

“Last one to the top is a rotten egg!” Duke called as he took off at a run, leaving Nathan to chase after him carrying the sled.

Two hours passed in almost no time as they took turns going individually or together down the hill in Duke’s sled, Nathan’s old one forgotten at the base of a tree. Both boys were pink-cheeked from the cold and the exertion of running up the hill time after time, but there was no end to their energy. Even Wade had retreated to one of the benches at the bottom of the hill with a girl while the boys ran up Stanton Hill again, throwing snowballs at each other and laughing when they inevitably tripped and landed face-down in the snow.

“How about we race?” Duke suggested eventually as they stood at the top and waited their turn. “You can use your old sled and I’ll use mine.”

“But we already know you’re going to win,” Nathan whined, kicking the snow with his boot. “Mine’s old, and I didn’t get the Chrome Lightning this year like I wanted.”

“I didn’t get it either,” Duke admitted. “Just one race, then I’ll let you use mine again.”

“Okay,” Nathan agreed and went to retrieve his own sled before he lined up next to Duke at the top of the hill.

“Ready… set…” Bill McShaw announced as the official so Duke wouldn’t cheat. “Go!”

Nathan pushed off with his sled at the same time Duke did, flying down the hill just behind him until something went wrong with his sled and one of the metal runners wobbled beneath him, sending him veering off to the side rather than straight down the hill like he intended. “Aaaggghhh!” he yelled, covering his head with his arms as he crashed into a tree and tumbled off the splintered wooden sled into a bush.

From his vantage point halfway up the hill, Nathan saw Duke reach the bottom and come to a stop, jumping up and cheering before he looked up to see where Nathan had fallen off. A group of kids congratulated Duke, while a couple others headed towards him, but Nathan was fine.

In fact, he was better than fine. He must have avoided getting any snow under his jacket because he wasn’t cold, and unlike most of the bramble bushes in Haven, this one didn’t seem to be poking him through his coat, so it was just a matter of getting to his feet. Two of the kids he knew from school, Duke’s friend Jeff and a girl named Lisa, had almost gotten to him when he waved at them, grinning to tell them he was okay.

Nathan was fine, so the last thing he expected was for Lisa to start screaming and pointing at him. When he looked down, though, he knew why. His left arm was broken and the bone stuck out through the skin, and his new coat was covered in blood. Nathan looked at it dumbly, as if he was looking at someone else’s arm, because it didn’t hurt at all, even though he knew it should have. He was more confused than anything else, the voices around him disappearing, until he heard Duke right next to him. 

“Nate, Nate!” he shook Nathan’s good shoulder to get his attention, but Nathan didn’t feel it. “Come on, you’ve got to get to the doctor!”

Nathan saw Duke take his good hand and pull him along down the hill, but like his broken arm he couldn’t feel Duke’s hand in his. “I can’t feel it,” Nathan whispered as he followed, unaware of his surroundings as they walked quickly to the street. “I can’t feel anything.”

“Shh,” Duke shushed him quietly and lead him along. “Come on, the hospital isn’t far. They can call your dad.”

“But Duke, it doesn’t hurt,” the further they walked, the more dizzy he felt, and when he looked over his shoulder there was a trail of blood in the snow. “Why doesn’t it hurt?”

“I don’t know, Nate,” Duke whispered. He sounded scared. Duke never sounded scared. That Duke was scared made Nathan scared. 

“What if I’m dying?” Tears filled his eyes and the blurry world spun around him as he fell. The last thing he saw was his hand slipping from Duke’s.

***

“Help!” Duke shouted, only a block from the hospital now. He could see it down the street, but Nathan was too heavy and he was too little to carry his friend there. “Somebody help!”

Duke had barely managed to catch Nathan by the coat before he landed on the snow-covered concrete, but then he had collapsed to his knees under the unexpected weight and it was a struggle to get to his feet again. “Nathan, wake up. Come on, Nate,” he begged, crying right there on the street because he didn’t know what to do.

“Duke?” 

The dark-haired boy looked up at his name and recognized the younger brother from the newspaper through his tears. “Please help Nate, he fell down sledding and I can’t carry him--” he rambled, the words just spilling out of his mouth as the man picked up Nathan’s limp body like a doll.

“Come on, kid. We need to get him to the hospital,” the man adjusted Nathan on his shoulder and took one of Duke’s hands in his. “Watch out for ice so you don’t slip.”

It was easier with an adult there, but Duke was still worried about his friend and the tears didn’t stop until they were inside the hospital and the doctors had taken Nathan away to fix his arm. A nurse came to ask him about Nathan and check to make sure he wasn’t hurt too – all the blood was Nathan’s, after all – but then she left and he was stuck sitting there alone on a bed. He saw Nathan’s dad rush by in his uniform a little while later – Nathan’s dad was a police officer, but he didn’t like Duke’s dad so Duke wasn’t supposed to play with Nathan. He wished Nathan’s dad liked him so he could ask him how Nathan was, but he couldn’t so he stayed there and waited.

“Hey Duke,” the man from the street appeared in the doorway, smiling at him, but Duke couldn’t smile back. “How are you feeling?”

“What happened to Nathan?” he asked instead, ignoring the question. He just wanted someone to tell him that Nate was alive, that he was going to be okay.

“His arm was broken,” he replied, “and he lost of lot of blood, so he’s in surgery now. He should be fine though, he’s a tough kid.”

Duke finally relaxed a little, “Thanks, um, Mister…”

“You can call me Dave,” the man told him.

“Thanks Dave.”

***

Duke’s dad hadn’t picked him up until well after dark that night, and when he finally showed up he reeked of booze to the point the hospital staff did a sobriety test to make sure he was capable of taking Duke home. Dave had stayed with him all day, playing cards and keeping him busy so he didn’t worry too much or wander off looking for Nathan, and was there with him when the nurse came by to tell them Nate was okay and sleeping.

Nathan stayed in the hospital for more than a month, but Duke wasn’t allowed to visit because Nathan’s dad was there. Instead, he made a get-better card and wrapped up his favorite Han Solo and Chewbacca action figures so Dave could take over to him along with the homework and classwork assignments Nathan was missing while he was out of school. He didn’t sign the card, but he figured Nathan would know who it was from.

When Nathan did come back to school right after Easter, though, he wouldn’t even talk to Duke. He didn’t go out to recess, he ate his lunch in the classroom instead of in the cafeteria with the rest of the kids, and he ignored Duke as much as he possibly could. Upset that he was being ignored, Duke made a point to push him whenever he could, just to get a reaction so Nate would talk to him. He didn’t understand why Nathan hated him. It wasn’t his fault Nathan’s sled was old and broke, but when he told Nathan that, the other boy punched him for it and they were both suspended from school for fighting. After that, though, everyone talked about how Nathan was a freak who couldn’t feel anything, so Duke gave up on being nice to someone who clearly hated him.


End file.
